TAKING STOCK OF TEAM’S OPTIONS AT LEFT TACKLE

But, oh, how strange it is that several players will have made the most important decision of their professional lives just minutes into the process.

Fact is, teams have already vetted the agents of several of the players they’re interested in and that are due to be unrestricted, and come this time next week in Indianapolis, the sides will be engaged in all sorts of informal talks. Many of the top-tier free agents will have a decent idea where they might be headed by the time the NFL Combine wraps up at the end of this month.

Of course, the Combine is also where potential draftees are poked and prodded for essentially the first time and a clearer picture begins to develop of the young talent available.

So, in advance of the weeklong job interview/job fair/pub crawl that is the Combine, let’s examine the Chargers’ options in filling one of their greatest (among many) needs: left tackle.

For the second year in a row and the third time in four years, the Chargers are trying to sign a guy to protect Philip Rivers’ blind side.

They thought they’d locked up Marcus McNeill — better late than never — in the middle of the 2010 season. But McNeill’s neck forced him to retire after he’d played just 20 games on his five-year, $49 million deal.

Then prior to last year, they re-signed Jared Gaither with the idea/hope he’d be close to as good for the next four years as he was for five games at the end of 2011. But Gaither couldn’t/wouldn’t make it through training camp due to a bad back and ended up playing just four games. The new Chargers brass is saying everyone has a clean slate, but they won’t be able to erase the memories of teammates who believe Gaither defrauded them. Moreover, they probably can’t make Gaither’s long history of slacking become a future of dedicated service.

So here the Chargers are again.

The seemingly bad news, besides the mere fact they have to use resources on a left tackle after giving McNeill $11.8 million for 2010 and ’11 and Gaither $9 million in ’12, is that two of the top three draft-eligible tackles (Taylor Lewan and Jake Matthews) decided to stay in college.

With Texas A&M’s Luke Joeckel and Central Michigan’s Eric Fisher possibly going in the top 10, what will be available to the Chargers with the 11th overall pick could ostensibly be the fourth-best tackle.

To spend that high of a pick on a leftover would be foolish. Better to try to identify a tackle worthy of a second- or third-round pick. (Remember, McNeill was a second-rounder and started from the first game of his rookie year.)

This is especially so in that there is another feasible option, even though the Chargers have said they are loath to go big in free agency after last year’s ill-fated foray.

Thing is, unlike last 2012, when Gaither was really the only starting left tackle available, there are an abundance of excellent to serviceable left tackles available this March, which gives teams the leverage.

The Chargers knew Gaither was a risk but felt they had to take it. This year, that wouldn’t be the case.

There could be as many as a half-dozen starting left tackles available in free agency, a relative glut in the market.

Ryan Clady is reportedly going to receive the franchise tag from Denver. But Branden Albert is not guaranteed to remain in Kansas City, and Sam Baker could move on from Atlanta. Jake Long is considered a luxury in Miami, and the Giants have yet to follow through on their reported plan to re-sign Will Beatty.

For the same reason teams could be willing to part with decent-to-excellent left tackles — that being, the quality available in the draft — teams like the Chargers have more options.

Should those named above return to their former employers — because, even with the draft being rich, it’s difficult to imagine teams allowing proven left tackles to walk away — there are more veteran options.